Dean's corner

LBS for London

23/03/2018By François Ortalo-Magné

What did you do for #LBSFORLONDON? What a great opportunity for our community to come together and have an impact within our city! A big thank you to the organisers and the many volunteers who braved adverse weather conditions to participate.

I was lucky to be part of the Sunday afternoon ACORN event, which gave teenagers the opportunity to develop a new skill for Amazon’s Alexa – adding capabilities to Alexa beyond the ones it already has – and compete for generous prizes. Students, alumni and friends provided mentorship. I helped judge the pitches and award the prizes. It was great fun and we all learned about Alexa, design thinking and so much more (eg. how Amazon is harnessing the creativity of young people around the world while creating outstanding learning opportunities). I particularly enjoyed meeting our students and alumni who volunteer their time mentoring the teams. Their impact was obvious in the quality of the pitches and how hard it was to pick a winner!